Psalm 50 (II)

1650 psalter

The principles that shall guide the judgment of the Righteous One at the gathering of the Saints

God has spoken, and He sends forth His light and truth out of Zion, which is the perfection of beauty. And His living Word will come to pass. He will also come according to promise, in judgment, for He is the judge of all the earth, and of the quick and the dead.

His Word exposes formalism in v. 7-15, and then to v. 21, hypocrisy. These twin evils are the bane of the church, and often sully her beauty. Our Lord continually rebuked the Pharisees for their insistent formality, which is emphasised by the keeping of the vain traditions of men. But He also warned His disciples, “Beware of the leaven of hypocrisy.” A little leaven of either will leaven the whole lump.

Rather, His covenant people, His saints are to glorify Him. And they do so by the sincerity and spontaneity of praise, with an accompanying rectitude of life and speech (v. 23). 

Pastor Jeff O’ Neil

Recommended Tune: St Bernard, Jackson, St Agnes

St Bernard
Jackson
St Agnes

Psalm 50 – Second Version (Common metre)

¹The mighty God, the LORD, hath spoke,
And call’d the earth upon,
Ev’n from the rising of the sun
Unto his going down.

²From out of Zion, his own hill,
Where the perfection high
Of beauty is, from thence the Lord
Hath shined gloriously.

³Our God shall come, and shall no more
Be silent, but speak out:
Before him fire shall waste, great storms
Shall compass him about.

⁴He to the heavens from above,
And to the earth below,
Shall call, that he his judgments may
Before his people show.

⁵Let all my saints together be
Unto me gathered;
Those that by sacrifice with me
A covenant have made.

⁶And then the heavens shall declare
His righteousness abroad:
Because the Lord himself doth come;
None else is judge but God.

⁷Hear, O my people, and I’ll speak;
O Israel by name,
Against thee I will testify;
God, ev’n thy God, I am.

⁸I for thy sacrifices few
Reprove thee never will,
Nor for burnt-off’rings to have been
Before me offer’d still.

⁹I’ll take no bullock nor he-goats
From house nor folds of thine:
¹⁰For beasts of forests, cattle all
On thousand hills, are mine.

¹¹The fowls are all to me well known
That mountains high do yield;
And I do challenge as mine own
The wild beasts of the field.

¹²If I were hungry, I would not
To thee for need complain;
For earth, and all its fulness, doth
To me of right pertain.

¹³That I to eat the flesh of bulls
Take pleasure dost thou think?
Or that I need, to quench my thirst,
The blood of goats to drink?

¹⁴Nay, rather unto me, thy God,
Thanksgiving offer thou:
To the most High perform thy word,
And fully pay thy vow:

¹⁵And in the day of trouble great
See that thou call on me;
I will deliver thee, and thou
My name shalt glorify.

¹⁶But God unto the wicked saith,
Why should’st thou mention make
Of my commands? how dar’st thou in
Thy mouth my cov’nant take?

¹⁷Sith it is so that thou dost hate
All good instruction;
And sith thou cast’st behind thy back,
And slight’st my words each one.

¹⁸When thou a thief didst see, then straight
Thou join’dst with him in sin,
And with the vile adulterers
Thou hast partaker been.

¹⁹Thy mouth to evil thou dost give,
Thy tongue deceit doth frame.
²⁰Thou sitt’st, and ‘gainst thy brother speak’st,
Thy mother’s son to shame.

²¹These things thou wickedly hast done,
And I have silent been:
Thou thought’st that I was like thyself,
And did approve thy sin:

But I will sharply thee reprove,
And I will order right
Thy sins and thy transgressions
In presence of thy sight.

²²Consider this, and be afraid,
Ye that forget the Lord,
Lest I in pieces tear you all,
When none can help afford.

²³Who off’reth praise me glorifies:
I will show God’s salvation
To him that ordereth aright
His life and conversation.